My Stimulus Package

Much as been written and said about the current financial situation here in the U.S. President Obama just signed a bill which has the intent of getting the economy running smoothly again. Time will tell if this attempt is successful or not. A friend asked me a couple of weeks ago if I could recommend any places to put money which would be secure and give a good return. Here is my recommendation- tithing.

Tithing is one of the few guaranteed blessings of the Bible. It is unique in that God asks us to put him to the test on tithing. His dare to us is to see if he won't pour out a blessing too big for us to contain (Malachi 3). I'm not talking about "How to Get Rich and Have Everything You Ever Wanted". What I am saying is that if there were a body of believers at a local church that would unanimously trust God in the area of tithing, we would hear about it on World News Tonight. We would hear about it because that church would be meeting needs in the community; feeding the starving, clothing the naked, visiting the prisoner, and evangelizing the world. Without calling attention to themselves, people would see their good works and praise God because of them.

I want to be part of a church like that. To my knowledge, there is not a church that has 100% of their attenders who tithe. Nationally, 20 to 25% of pentecostal believers trust God with their tithe. As a result, we are living in a "barely enough" church economy. We just have barely enough to pay our pastor and keep up the facility. We can do just enough benevolence to say that we are doing something. There is so much more out there we would be doing if we lived as though we believe God isn't lying to us. The income level of the giver doesn't matter. What matters is the belief that God honors his promises. If God found a congregation who unanimously trusted him with their finances, it would be unbelievable what he could do through it. It would be apparent to all that God was doing something special and people would be drawn to a God who causes people to act that way.

That is my stimulus package. It needs no debate, no votes and no bipartisan support. It depends only on individuals trusting God to do what he has said over and over that he would do. It's just that simple.